A Woman of Angkor: A Novel [Kindle Edition]

A Woman of Angkor: A Novel [Kindle Edition]

A Woman of Angkor: A Novel [Kindle Edition]

Author: John Burgess Publisher: River Books Publishing Date: 2013 File Size: 990 KB Print Length: 502 pages Language: English ASIN: B00DCCQN5E Format: Kindle Edition, Paperback Text-to-Speech: Enabled X-Ray: Not Enabled Lending: Not Enabled Buy at Amazon

Book Description

Praise for A Woman of Angkor:

'Burgess has done something that I believe is unique in modern writing: set a credible and seemingly authentic tale in the courts and temples of ancient Angkor to stir the imagination and excite our historical interest.' -John le Carré

'A Woman of Angkor is a powerful work of imagination that takes the reader to a faraway time and place and makes the story vividly real. Through the voice of his heroine, Sray, John Burgess conjures a story of a Khmer family whose lives are interwoven with the building of the magical, mysterious temple of Angkor Wat. This is historical fiction with a difference--about a people whose history has been obscured and abandoned like the magnificent shrine that for so many centuries lay hidden in the jungle.' -David Ignatius, columnist for The Washington Post and author of Bloodmoney

'A poignant glimpse into the daily life of Twelfth Century Cambodia. Do you want to know who were the people who built the temples, grew the rice and served in the palace guard? Read A Woman of Angkor.' -Dawn Rooney, author of Angkor: Cambodia's Wondrous Khmer Temples

'A wonderful and compelling story that vividly evokes the glory, violence, and beauty of the vanished Khmer Empire, as told through the testimony of one remarkable woman. This is a real page-turner of a narrative in which Burgess brings us into the dangerous world of palace intrigues and into the lives of Angkor's ordinary people.' -Michael D. Coe, author of Angkor and the Khmer Civilization

This first novel by former Washington Post journalist John Burgess is historically accurate and a very imaginative telling of the history of World Heritage Site Angkor.

'Pure and beautiful, she glows like the moon behind clouds.'

The time is the 12th Century, the place Cambodia, birthplace of the lost Angkor civilisation. In a village behind a towering stone temple lives a young woman named Sray, whom neighbors liken to the heroine of a Hindu epic. Hiding a dangerous secret, she is content with quiet obscurity, but one rainy season afternoon is called to a life of prominence in the royal court. There her faith and loyalties are tested by attentions from the great king Suryavarman II. Struggling to keep her devotion is her husband Nol, palace confidante and master of the silk parasols that were symbols of the monarch's rank.

This lovingly crafted novel revives the rites and rhythms of the ancient culture that built the temples of Angkor, then abandoned them to the jungle. In telling her tale, Sray takes the reader to a hilltop monastery, a concubine pavilion and across the seas to the throne room of imperial China. She witnesses the construction of the largest of the temples, Angkor Wat, and offers an explanation for its greatest mystery-why it broke with centuries of tradition to face west instead of east.

More about the Author

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Author: John Burgess Publisher: River Books Publishing Date: 2013 File Size: 990 KB Print Length: 502 pages Language: English ASIN: B00DCCQN5E Format: Kindle Edition, Paperback Text-to-Speech: Enabled X-Ray: Not Enabled Lending: Not Enabled Buy at Amazon

Book Description

Praise for A Woman of Angkor:

'Burgess has done something that I believe is unique in modern writing: set a credible and seemingly authentic tale in the courts and temples of ancient Angkor to stir the imagination and excite our historical interest.' -John le Carré

'A Woman of Angkor is a powerful work of imagination that takes the reader to a faraway time and place and makes the story vividly real. Through the voice of his heroine, Sray, John Burgess conjures a story of a Khmer family whose lives are interwoven with the building of the magical, mysterious temple of Angkor Wat. This is historical fiction with a difference--about a people whose history has been obscured and abandoned like the magnificent shrine that for so many centuries lay hidden in the jungle.' -David Ignatius, columnist for The Washington Post and author of Bloodmoney

'A poignant glimpse into the daily life of Twelfth Century Cambodia. Do you want to know who were the people who built the temples, grew the rice and served in the palace guard? Read A Woman of Angkor.' -Dawn Rooney, author of Angkor: Cambodia's Wondrous Khmer Temples

'A wonderful and compelling story that vividly evokes the glory, violence, and beauty of the vanished Khmer Empire, as told through the testimony of one remarkable woman. This is a real page-turner of a narrative in which Burgess brings us into the dangerous world of palace intrigues and into the lives of Angkor's ordinary people.' -Michael D. Coe, author of Angkor and the Khmer Civilization

This first novel by former Washington Post journalist John Burgess is historically accurate and a very imaginative telling of the history of World Heritage Site Angkor.

'Pure and beautiful, she glows like the moon behind clouds.'

The time is the 12th Century, the place Cambodia, birthplace of the lost Angkor civilisation. In a village behind a towering stone temple lives a young woman named Sray, whom neighbors liken to the heroine of a Hindu epic. Hiding a dangerous secret, she is content with quiet obscurity, but one rainy season afternoon is called to a life of prominence in the royal court. There her faith and loyalties are tested by attentions from the great king Suryavarman II. Struggling to keep her devotion is her husband Nol, palace confidante and master of the silk parasols that were symbols of the monarch's rank.

This lovingly crafted novel revives the rites and rhythms of the ancient culture that built the temples of Angkor, then abandoned them to the jungle. In telling her tale, Sray takes the reader to a hilltop monastery, a concubine pavilion and across the seas to the throne room of imperial China. She witnesses the construction of the largest of the temples, Angkor Wat, and offers an explanation for its greatest mystery-why it broke with centuries of tradition to face west instead of east.

More about the Author

Books - Biography

A Woman of Angkor: A Novel [Paperback]

A Woman of Angkor: A Novel [Paperback]

A Woman of Angkor: A Novel [Paperback]

Author: John Burgess Publisher: River Books Press Dist A C Publishing Date: 1st Edition, 2013 Paperback: 500 pages Language: English ISBN-10: 6167339252 ISBN-13: 978-6167339252 Format: Paperback, Kindle Edition Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds Buy at Amazon

Book Description

Praise for A Woman of Angkor:

'Burgess has done something that I believe is unique in modern writing: set a credible and seemingly authentic tale in the courts and temples of ancient Angkor to stir the imagination and excite our historical interest.' -John le Carré

'A Woman of Angkor is a powerful work of imagination that takes the reader to a faraway time and place and makes the story vividly real. Through the voice of his heroine, Sray, John Burgess conjures a story of a Khmer family whose lives are interwoven with the building of the magical, mysterious temple of Angkor Wat. This is historical fiction with a difference--about a people whose history has been obscured and abandoned like the magnificent shrine that for so many centuries lay hidden in the jungle.' -David Ignatius, columnist for The Washington Post and author of Bloodmoney

'A poignant glimpse into the daily life of Twelfth Century Cambodia. Do you want to know who were the people who built the temples, grew the rice and served in the palace guard? Read A Woman of Angkor.' -Dawn Rooney, author of Angkor: Cambodia's Wondrous Khmer Temples

'A wonderful and compelling story that vividly evokes the glory, violence, and beauty of the vanished Khmer Empire, as told through the testimony of one remarkable woman. This is a real page-turner of a narrative in which Burgess brings us into the dangerous world of palace intrigues and into the lives of Angkor's ordinary people.' -Michael D. Coe, author of Angkor and the Khmer Civilization

This first novel by former Washington Post journalist John Burgess is historically accurate and a very imaginative telling of the history of World Heritage Site Angkor.

'Pure and beautiful, she glows like the moon behind clouds.'

The time is the 12th Century, the place Cambodia, birthplace of the lost Angkor civilisation. In a village behind a towering stone temple lives a young woman named Sray, whom neighbors liken to the heroine of a Hindu epic. Hiding a dangerous secret, she is content with quiet obscurity, but one rainy season afternoon is called to a life of prominence in the royal court. There her faith and loyalties are tested by attentions from the great king Suryavarman II. Struggling to keep her devotion is her husband Nol, palace confidante and master of the silk parasols that were symbols of the monarch's rank.

This lovingly crafted novel revives the rites and rhythms of the ancient culture that built the temples of Angkor, then abandoned them to the jungle. In telling her tale, Sray takes the reader to a hilltop monastery, a concubine pavilion and across the seas to the throne room of imperial China. She witnesses the construction of the largest of the temples, Angkor Wat, and offers an explanation for its greatest mystery-why it broke with centuries of tradition to face west instead of east.

More about the Author

Books - Biography

Author: John Burgess Publisher: River Books Press Dist A C Publishing Date: 1st Edition, 2013 Paperback: 500 pages Language: English ISBN-10: 6167339252 ISBN-13: 978-6167339252 Format: Paperback, Kindle Edition Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds Buy at Amazon

Book Description

Praise for A Woman of Angkor:

'Burgess has done something that I believe is unique in modern writing: set a credible and seemingly authentic tale in the courts and temples of ancient Angkor to stir the imagination and excite our historical interest.' -John le Carré

'A Woman of Angkor is a powerful work of imagination that takes the reader to a faraway time and place and makes the story vividly real. Through the voice of his heroine, Sray, John Burgess conjures a story of a Khmer family whose lives are interwoven with the building of the magical, mysterious temple of Angkor Wat. This is historical fiction with a difference--about a people whose history has been obscured and abandoned like the magnificent shrine that for so many centuries lay hidden in the jungle.' -David Ignatius, columnist for The Washington Post and author of Bloodmoney

'A poignant glimpse into the daily life of Twelfth Century Cambodia. Do you want to know who were the people who built the temples, grew the rice and served in the palace guard? Read A Woman of Angkor.' -Dawn Rooney, author of Angkor: Cambodia's Wondrous Khmer Temples

'A wonderful and compelling story that vividly evokes the glory, violence, and beauty of the vanished Khmer Empire, as told through the testimony of one remarkable woman. This is a real page-turner of a narrative in which Burgess brings us into the dangerous world of palace intrigues and into the lives of Angkor's ordinary people.' -Michael D. Coe, author of Angkor and the Khmer Civilization

This first novel by former Washington Post journalist John Burgess is historically accurate and a very imaginative telling of the history of World Heritage Site Angkor.

'Pure and beautiful, she glows like the moon behind clouds.'

The time is the 12th Century, the place Cambodia, birthplace of the lost Angkor civilisation. In a village behind a towering stone temple lives a young woman named Sray, whom neighbors liken to the heroine of a Hindu epic. Hiding a dangerous secret, she is content with quiet obscurity, but one rainy season afternoon is called to a life of prominence in the royal court. There her faith and loyalties are tested by attentions from the great king Suryavarman II. Struggling to keep her devotion is her husband Nol, palace confidante and master of the silk parasols that were symbols of the monarch's rank.

This lovingly crafted novel revives the rites and rhythms of the ancient culture that built the temples of Angkor, then abandoned them to the jungle. In telling her tale, Sray takes the reader to a hilltop monastery, a concubine pavilion and across the seas to the throne room of imperial China. She witnesses the construction of the largest of the temples, Angkor Wat, and offers an explanation for its greatest mystery-why it broke with centuries of tradition to face west instead of east.

More about the Author

Books - Biography

Stories in Stone: The Sdok Kok Thom Inscription & the Enigma of Khmer History [Kindle Edition]

Stories in Stone: The Sdok Kok Thom Inscription & the Enigma of Khmer History [Kindle Edition]

Stories in Stone: The Sdok Kok Thom Inscription & the Enigma of Khmer History [Kindle Edition]

Author: John Burgess Publisher: River Books Publishing Date: 1st Edition, 2011 File Size: 2518 KB Print Length: 198 pages Language: English ASIN: B004UH7KD4 Format: Kindle Edition, Paperback Text-to-Speech: Enabled X-Ray: Not Enabled Lending: Not Enabled Buy at Amazon

Book Description

The founding of an empire, the settling of frontier lands, a king’s gifting of gold pitchers and black-eared stallions to a Brahmin priest – these and other remarkable stories come down to us in the Sdok Kok Thom Inscription, one of the world’s most important ancient testaments. Recovered at a ruined temple in Thailand close to the Cambodian border, the 340-line chronicle unlocks the early history of the Khmer Empire. Yet temple and text have remained little known outside expert circles. In this full and highly readable account, former Washington Post correspondent John Burgess traces the impact of the great inscription, which was carved onto a sandstone monolith around 1052 AD, abandoned to the wild for centuries, then decoded by French colonialists. He relates the temple’s surprise emergence in 1979 as a haven for Cambodian refugees and resistance fighters during the war in their homeland. Today Sdok Kok Thom is again at peace, its mission of preserving history accomplished.

Including photographs of the temple, past and present, Refugee Camp 007 and its refugees and militias; extracts from previously unpublished letters of French savant Étienne Aymonier, the inscription’s first translator, written during his months of travels around Cambodia in 1882-1885; a revised English translation of the full inscription by the University of Hawaii linguists Chhany Sak-Humphry and Philip N. Jenner; a glossary of terms; and suggested further readings.

More about the Author

Books - Biography

Author: John Burgess Publisher: River Books Publishing Date: 1st Edition, 2011 File Size: 2518 KB Print Length: 198 pages Language: English ASIN: B004UH7KD4 Format: Kindle Edition, Paperback Text-to-Speech: Enabled X-Ray: Not Enabled Lending: Not Enabled Buy at Amazon

Book Description

The founding of an empire, the settling of frontier lands, a king’s gifting of gold pitchers and black-eared stallions to a Brahmin priest – these and other remarkable stories come down to us in the Sdok Kok Thom Inscription, one of the world’s most important ancient testaments. Recovered at a ruined temple in Thailand close to the Cambodian border, the 340-line chronicle unlocks the early history of the Khmer Empire. Yet temple and text have remained little known outside expert circles. In this full and highly readable account, former Washington Post correspondent John Burgess traces the impact of the great inscription, which was carved onto a sandstone monolith around 1052 AD, abandoned to the wild for centuries, then decoded by French colonialists. He relates the temple’s surprise emergence in 1979 as a haven for Cambodian refugees and resistance fighters during the war in their homeland. Today Sdok Kok Thom is again at peace, its mission of preserving history accomplished.

Including photographs of the temple, past and present, Refugee Camp 007 and its refugees and militias; extracts from previously unpublished letters of French savant Étienne Aymonier, the inscription’s first translator, written during his months of travels around Cambodia in 1882-1885; a revised English translation of the full inscription by the University of Hawaii linguists Chhany Sak-Humphry and Philip N. Jenner; a glossary of terms; and suggested further readings.

More about the Author

Books - Biography

Stories in Stone: The Sdok Kok Thom Inscription and the Enigma of Khmer History [Paperback]

Stories in Stone: The Sdok Kok Thom Inscription and the Enigma of Khmer History [Paperback]

Stories in Stone: The Sdok Kok Thom Inscription and the Enigma of Khmer History [Paperback]

Author: John Burgess Publisher: River Books Press Dist A C Publishing Date: 2010 Paperback: 198 pages Language: English ISBN-10: 6167339015 ISBN-13: 978-6167339016 Format: Paperback, Kindle Edition Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds Buy at Amazon

Book Description

A personal and historic account of Sadok Kok Thom Temple, weaving in the archaeology of Angkor with the political turmoil of Cambodia during the 1960s-70s.

More about the Author

Books - Biography

Author: John Burgess Publisher: River Books Press Dist A C Publishing Date: 2010 Paperback: 198 pages Language: English ISBN-10: 6167339015 ISBN-13: 978-6167339016 Format: Paperback, Kindle Edition Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds Buy at Amazon

Book Description

A personal and historic account of Sadok Kok Thom Temple, weaving in the archaeology of Angkor with the political turmoil of Cambodia during the 1960s-70s.

More about the Author

Books - Biography